Bank Calumet opens home ownership to illegal immigrants

For years and years Javier Palacios Perez worked hard in the factory, paid taxes and made sure he and his wife, Josefina, were able to raise their three children properly.

But the couple could only dream of owning a home. Like an estimated 14 million other immigrants, breadwinner Javier Perez is here as an undocumented alien, so he lacks a Social Security number, which is required for home mortgages.

"He was not frustrated," said Irma Herrera in translating his remarks on Tuesday at Bank Calumet's main branch in Hammond. "He just never thought his dream would come true. He thought that he could never own a home."

On Tuesday, that dream was put within the Perez family's grasp, when they became the first Bank Calumet customers to secure what is known as an ITIN home mortgage.

ITIN mortgages allow borrowers to use their individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) in place of a Social Security number for identification.

The new loans, still only slowly gaining acceptance, allow illegal immigrants to get home mortgages. Individual taxpayer identification numbers are issued to taxpayers by the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS started issuing them to foreigners who are not eligible for Social Security numbers eight years ago to encourage them to file income tax returns.

Banks have extended about 800 ITIN loans to undocumented aliens in the Midwest in the past year, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The ITIN loan made at Bank Calumet on Tuesday is believed to be the first in Northwest Indiana. The bank has committed to making up to $1 million in ITIN loans in the next year, Bank Calumet chairman and chief executive officer Cal Bellamy said.

"We want to work with hard working, taxpaying people with strong families and deep religious faith," Bellamy said. "And that to us is the definition of the Hispanic community."

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